Re: USB external floppy

[Bryan Everly]

Thanks. Yes. That's it. A Vaxatation 3100 boot disk.

Any particular vendor you'd recommend as known to work?

Thanks,
Bryan

> On Dec 14, 2015, at 4:25 AM, Tati Chevron  wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 06:11:07PM -0500, Bryan C. Everly wrote:
>> I'm wanting to create a boot floppy for a Vaxstation.  Could someone
>> recommend a USB floppy that I could plug into my amd64 laptop that would
>> allow me to create a boot floppy for a VAX?
>
> Are you trying to write an OpenBSD/VAX boot floppy to a common 1.44 MB
> 3.5" disk, (to read in what DEC would have called an RX23 floppy drive),
> or something more unusual?  If it's something unusual, can you be more
> specific about the model of Vaxstation and/or what format you want to
> write the disk in?
>
> Assuming that you want to create a, 'normal', OpenBSD/VAX boot floppy,
> any supported USB drive will allow you to do this.  If it's anything
> else, the answer will be more complicated.
>
> --
> Tati Chevron
> Perl and FORTRAN specialist.
> SWABSIT development and migration department.
> http://www.swabsit.com

Re: USB external floppy

[Bryan C. Everly]

Awesome Andre.  Thank for the help!


Thanks,
Bryan

On Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 7:11 PM, Andre Smagin  wrote:

> On Sun, 13 Dec 2015 18:11:07 -0500
> "Bryan C. Everly"  wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm wanting to create a boot floppy for a Vaxstation.  Could someone
> > recommend a USB floppy that I could plug into my amd64 laptop that would
> > allow me to create a boot floppy for a VAX?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Bryan
>
> Hi.
>
> I don't know anything about VAXes, but I do use USB floppy drive often.
> The drive I have is a bit flaky, equally so under OpenBSD and Windows,
> and needs the disk to be ejected and reinserted, or the drive unplugged
> and reconnected sometimes, but, generally speaking, it works. A bit slow
> under OpenBSD when mounting and using FAT disks.
>
> Sold by Amazon as "Nippon Labs" USB floppy drive:
>
> umass0 at uhub7 port 1 configuration 1 interface 0 "TEAC TEAC FD-05PUB"
> rev 2.00/0.00 addr 2
> umass0: using UFI over CBI with CCI
> scsibus2 at umass0: 2 targets, initiator 0
> sd3 at scsibus2 targ 1 lun 0:  ATAPI 0/direct
> removable
>
>
> Just tried dd'ing the vax image onto a disk using that drive:
>
> $ time sudo dd if=/tmp/floppy58.fs  of=/dev/rsd3c bs=1m
> 1+1 records in
> 1+1 records out
> 1474560 bytes transferred in 51.998 secs (28358 bytes/sec)
> 0m53.58s real 0m00.00s user 0m00.01s system
>
> --
> Andre

Re: USB external floppy

[Tati Chevron]

On Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 06:11:07PM -0500, Bryan C. Everly wrote:

I'm wanting to create a boot floppy for a Vaxstation.  Could someone
recommend a USB floppy that I could plug into my amd64 laptop that would
allow me to create a boot floppy for a VAX?


Are you trying to write an OpenBSD/VAX boot floppy to a common 1.44 MB
3.5" disk, (to read in what DEC would have called an RX23 floppy drive),
or something more unusual?  If it's something unusual, can you be more
specific about the model of Vaxstation and/or what format you want to
write the disk in?

Assuming that you want to create a, 'normal', OpenBSD/VAX boot floppy,
any supported USB drive will allow you to do this.  If it's anything
else, the answer will be more complicated.

--
Tati Chevron
Perl and FORTRAN specialist.
SWABSIT development and migration department.
http://www.swabsit.com

USB external floppy

[Bryan C. Everly]

Hi,

I'm wanting to create a boot floppy for a Vaxstation.  Could someone
recommend a USB floppy that I could plug into my amd64 laptop that would
allow me to create a boot floppy for a VAX?

Thanks,
Bryan

Re: USB external floppy

[Andre Smagin]

On Sun, 13 Dec 2015 18:11:07 -0500
"Bryan C. Everly"  wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm wanting to create a boot floppy for a Vaxstation.  Could someone
> recommend a USB floppy that I could plug into my amd64 laptop that would
> allow me to create a boot floppy for a VAX?
> 
> Thanks,
> Bryan

Hi.

I don't know anything about VAXes, but I do use USB floppy drive often.
The drive I have is a bit flaky, equally so under OpenBSD and Windows,
and needs the disk to be ejected and reinserted, or the drive unplugged
and reconnected sometimes, but, generally speaking, it works. A bit slow
under OpenBSD when mounting and using FAT disks.

Sold by Amazon as "Nippon Labs" USB floppy drive: 

umass0 at uhub7 port 1 configuration 1 interface 0 "TEAC TEAC FD-05PUB" rev 
2.00/0.00 addr 2
umass0: using UFI over CBI with CCI
scsibus2 at umass0: 2 targets, initiator 0
sd3 at scsibus2 targ 1 lun 0:  ATAPI 0/direct removable


Just tried dd'ing the vax image onto a disk using that drive:

$ time sudo dd if=/tmp/floppy58.fs  of=/dev/rsd3c bs=1m
1+1 records in
1+1 records out
1474560 bytes transferred in 51.998 secs (28358 bytes/sec)
0m53.58s real 0m00.00s user 0m00.01s system

--
Andre